Peace of Mind Organizing

If you crave order and can’t seem to create it in your home, a professional organizer can help you achieve and maintain that order and the peace of mind that comes with it. Janine Adams, founder of Peace of Mind Organizing, LLC, will bring expertise and an objective eye to your situation, and will help you motivate yourself to discard unwanted objects that are cluttering your life. By hiring a professional organizer, you’re making a commitment to work toward creating the environment you yearn to live in.

The president of the St. Louis chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO), Janine is a leader in the local organizing community. She’s the St. Louis area’s first Certified Professional Organizer®, a credential conferred by the Board of Certification of Professional Organizers. She’s the only organizer in the St. Louis area who’s a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization®, having completed a rigorous, 20-month course of study. She’s taken extensive training through the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, NAPO, and other organizations and brings experience and compassion to the job. Janine isn’t a naturally neat and organized person; she’s spent a lifetime coming up with organizing solutions that work for her and loves sharing them with her clients. To get a feel for what working with Janine is like, you can subscribe to her blog and newsletter.

Trying to use an organizing system that doesn’t mesh with the way you think is like trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. Janine will ask you many questions and make suggestions based on what she thinks will work for you. She won’t force any system on you, but instead will work with you until you find one that’s right for you. And she’ll work with you to change the habits that have made it difficult for you to stay organized in the past. She can also provide support until the new system is firmly in place.

Anything you throw away will be your decision alone. If clutter is a problem in your home, you’ll almost certainly need to part with unneeded or unwanted items. Janine will help you identify those items and encourage you to discard them. But she won’t make you get rid of anything. More than 20 years ago, she encouraged her now-husband to toss out all his class notes from college and he lived to regret it (and he reminds her at least once a year!). She learned a valuable lesson—she never tries to influence people to give up irreplaceable items. But she’ll cheer you on as you decide to give up things that no longer have meaning or value for you.

That depends on the size and scope of the job, how quickly you’re able to decide about thinning out your belongings, and how much you want Janine to help you do. If you’re willing and able to do “homework” between sessions, the process will go faster and be less expensive.

The fees for Janine’s packages are listed in the appropriate pages within the Services menu. After you’ve completed a package, you may choose to purchase another one (and if you do, you’ll receive a discount) or you may choose to hire her on an hourly basis, with a minimum three-hour session.

If you live more than one hour from Janine’s south St. Louis home, you’ll be charged for travel time in excess of that hour each way.

If you live too far for Janine to drive back and forth home each day, she can travel to work with you. When she travels, she charges a daily fee, and will work with you as long as you want each day, up to ten hours. You’re responsible for her travel costs (hotel, food, airfare or gasoline), as well as her daily fee. Janine has found this type of intensive work to be very productive. (For more information see the Live Outside St. Louis? page.)

When you hire a professional organizer, you make an investment in your future. Being disorganized is expensive. It hampers your productivity and costs you time when you can’t find what you’re looking for. Just think what you could do with the time you now spend dealing with your stuff. If you’re disorganized in paying your bills, you might be paying late charges and higher-than-necessary interest rates on credit cards. Freeing your time and your mind by overcoming your barriers to getting and staying organized can pay dividends you can’t even anticipate now. Janine can help you get there.

All Janine’s services come with her Peace of Mind Guarantee. If, after your first session, you don’t feel you’ve gained more peace of mind, she’ll refund your money.

Janine will work with you to establish an organizing system that works for you and will teach you the skills needed to maintain order. She’ll work with you to change habits that have prevented you from staying organized in the past. If you don’t have the time to stay on top of your particular organizational challenge, you can hire Janine for maintenance work.

If you’re having trouble staying organized after the hands-on work is completed, and you need help staying motivated, telephone coaching can provide you just that. For a time commitment of an hour a week, you may be able to prevent backsliding into disorder.

Please don’t! Janine will want to see the full extent of any disorder in your home and get a chance to see how you live with it. It’s imperative that she sees the piles that habitually appear, so she can figure out how to make them disappear and stay away.

Absolutely not. As a Certified Professional Organizer® Janine is required to adhere to the Board of Certification of Professional Organizer’s Code of Ethics. She also adheres to the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Professional Organizers. Both ethical codes stipulate client confidentiality. Janine recognizes that clutter and disorder are personal and respects each client’s privacy.

Not necessarily. If you’re like a lot of people who crave order, you’ve amassed a large number of organizing products. Janine will strive to use items you already own. You may need to purchase some organizing supplies. If storage is an issue for you, some types of furniture or shelving may be necessary. Of course whether or not to purchase items will be completely up to you.

Janine can shop for organizing supplies for you, if you’d like, for her regular hourly fee. She will not mark up any items, but instead present you with receipts for reimbursement. As a professional organizer she has relationships with certain manufacturers of products and is able to place orders for those products on your behalf, sometimes at discounted prices.

Certainly. When you contact Janine initially, just ask her for references.

Janine has taken training through the premier organization for organizers, the National Association of Professional Organizers, as well as an affiliated organization, the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD). She has also invested in training in coaching, estate organizing, conducting needs assessments, and the Freedom Filer filing system. See the credentials page for details of her professional training.

In November 2008, she passed the certification exam administered by the Board of Certification for Professional Organizers. In order to sit for the exam, an organizer must have 1500 billed clients hours in the last three years (or 1250 hours and 250 substitute hours of training). Since she passed the exam, Janine is entitled to use the initials CPO® after her name. She’s the first organizer in the St. Louis area to achieve that distinction. She’s one of only two CPOs in St. Louis and six in the entire state of Missouri.

In October 2009, she completed a 20-month mentored and peer-reviewed program from the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization and now holds the prestigious credential Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® or CPO-CD®. She is the only CPO-CD® in the St. Louis area and one of only 60 in the U.S. and Canada.

From 1995 to 2005, Janine ran a successful writing business (she authored seven books and wrote more than a hundred newspaper and magazine articles) that required her to organize vast amounts of information. In prior positions she planned complex media events.

One of her most important attributes is her people skills. Janine empathizes with people who have difficulty staying organized. She understands what they’re going through. She’s non-judgmental and supportive. And she truly enjoys helping people overcome whatever is keeping them from achieving their organizational goals.